Cambodian, Japanese amongst winners of Magsaysay Awards 2022

A psychiatrist who helped fellow Cambodians get better from trauma ensuing from the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal rule and a Japanese ophthalmologist who led an effort to deal with hundreds of Vietnamese villagers have been amongst these chosen for this yr’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, considered Asia’s model of the Nobel Prize.

The different winners have been a Filipina pediatrician who has offered medical, authorized and social assist to hundreds of abused youngsters and their households, and a Frenchman who battles plastic air pollution in Indonesian rivers.

The annual awards, introduced Wednesday, are named after a Philippine president who died in a 1957 aircraft crash, and honour “greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.” They are to be offered in Manila on November 30.

The winners “have all challenged the invisible societal lines that cause separation and have drawn innovative and inspiring ones that build connections,” mentioned Aurelio Montinola III, chairperson of the award basis.

We proudly current the 2022 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees. For extra data, go to https://t.co/13iyCweLbi. #RamonMagsaysayAward #GreatnessOfSpiritBeyondBorders #GreatnessofSpirit #TransformativeLeadership #sixty fourthRamonMagsaysayAwards@TPOCambodia @GaryBencheghib @ChhimSotheara pic.twitter.com/3PyVpsX7qj

— Ramon Magsaysay Award (@MagsaysayAward) August 31, 2022

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Sotheara Chhim, Psychiatrist (Cambodia)

Cambodian Sotheara Chhim, 54, has led the remedy of hundreds of traumatised survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s brutal rule and different sufferers in his nation since turning into govt director of its Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation in 2002, the muse mentioned.

As a baby, he was compelled to work in Khmer Rouge camps for greater than three years till their rule led to 1979. He grew to become considered one of Cambodia’s first psychiatrists after years of struggle and devoted his life to treating folks, particularly in rural communities, the place he mentioned “the mental health worker should be.”

Tadashi Hattori, Opthalmologist (Japan)

Japanese ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori, 58, was awarded the prize for coaching native medical doctors who’ve handled hundreds of Vietnamese. He determined to turn into a health care provider at age 15 when he witnessed the impolite remedy that his cancer-stricken father obtained in a hospital, the award basis mentioned.

In a 2002 go to to Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi, he was deeply moved when he noticed how villagers had turn into blind due to an acute lack of eye specialists and remedy amenities, and began elevating funds, coaching consultants and donating gear to native hospitals, it mentioned.

“Even just healing one eye may make it possible for someone to attend a school or go back to work,” Hattori mentioned. “I can’t turn my back on people who are on the verge of losing their sight just because they lack the money to pay for treatment.”

Bernadette Madrid, Pediatrician (Philippines)

In the Philippines, the place youngster abuse has been a longstanding drawback due to poverty, youngster labour and trafficking, pediatrician Bernadette Madrid, 64, drew consideration by offering remedy, elevating consciousness and interesting policy-makers and civic teams to deal with the difficulty, award officers mentioned.

Since 1997, she has led the nation’s first youngster safety centre on the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. It has served greater than 27,000 youngsters as of final yr.

Madrid gained the award for “her leadership in running a multisectoral, multidisciplinary effort in child protection that is admired in Asia, and her competence and compassion in devoting herself to seeing that every abused child lives in a healing, safe and nurturing society,” the award basis mentioned.

Gary Bencheghib, Activist & Filmmaker (Indonesia)

It mentioned Gary Bencheghib from France grew to become a “warrior” towards plastic air pollution on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the place his dad and mom relocated years in the past, when he found the extent of plastic clogging its waterways. At 14, he began a weekly seaside cleanup together with his sister, brother and pals in a mission that led him to environmental safety advocacy.

Bencheghib, 27, later took up film-making in New York and produced greater than 100 movies on plastic air pollution and environmental safety that tens of millions have watched on YouTube, Facebook and different social media platforms.

A 2017 documentary on the polluted Citarum River in West Java helped immediate President Joko Widodo’s administration to start a seven-year rehabilitation programme, award officers mentioned.

He and his siblings have led the deployment of about 170 trash boundaries in polluted rivers and plan to put in a whole bunch extra in Bali and Java.

He gained the award for “his inspiring fight against marine plastic pollution … his youthful energies in combining nature, adventure, video and technology as weapons for social advocacy and his creative, risk-taking passion that is truly a shining example for the youth and the world,” the award basis mentioned.